After searching through a slew of A-list actresses to play Daisy Buchanan in his upcoming take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age novel "The Great Gatsby," the filmmaker has settled on Brit It girl Carey Mulligan, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The "Wall Street 2" star reportedly got the good news via a phone call from Luhrmann while she was on the red carpet at last night's Fashion Council Awards in New York.

But Mulligan, who earned an Oscar nomination for last year's "An Education," wasn't always at the top of the list.

Earlier reports this month claimed that Luhrmann did a workshop of the screenplay with "The Town" star Rebecca Hall reading Daisy opposite Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway.

Following Hall's run-through, Luhrmann continued to eye everyone from Keira Knightley to Blake Lively to Scarlett Johansson for the role.

New York magazine's Vulture reports that 25-year-old Mulligan became Luhrmann's top candidate mainly because Johansson had committed to filming Cameron Crowe's "We Bought a Zoo" late next spring, which conflicts with "Gatsby's" planned summer shoot.

D–I agree, the book is one of my faves. I really liked the movie, basically because Robert Redford was so flippin hot. Andy–I agree Mia's performance left much to be desired. However, I think Carey could pull it off because I thought she really nailed her part in "An Education". Her character was impressionable. Rebecca Hall might have worked, although I would see her more as "Jordan", perhaps because of her spiritedness or brunette hair. I think Scarlett Johanson may have been better. I will absolutely be seeing this film, Old Sport! 🙂

If it were at all possible to choose an actress to give an even LESS inspired performance than Mia Farrow's near-comatose Daisy, Baz Luhrmann has done so with Carey Mulligan. Granted, my primary exposure to her work has been through her turn as the impressionable, easily manipulated lead in An Education. I could see Rebecca Hall making a fantastic Daisy—Scarlett Johansson, too and even Blake Lively. Perhaps Luhrmann's choice hinged on the fact that, with her current short haircut, it's not a far stretch of the imagination to see Mulligan in the part of a flapper era female part. Pity.